Sunday, July 15, 2012

Grouchy Sloth Face

On our Saturday bike ride, my daughter and I studied this visage carefully

This truck face is not random, or accidental. Someone designed it, someone built it, someone bought it, all on purpose. So it is not off base to ask what the intent was, of the designer, the builder, the purchaser, the driver who took it to the grocery store and parked here: what's up with this face? Tough? Strong? Macho? Bad-ass? Dominating? It's truly a caricature of these, coming across more as a grouchy sloth, or perhaps the Master Control Program from Tron, rather than an intimidating bad-ass road dominator. The hilarious profusion of projector lamps is the best part: this thing has more eyes than a spider. With 12 lights mounted in the eye positions, do the driving or fog lamps down low actually add something more? 12 wasn't enough, 14 just about does it? And wouldn't that unibrow wind deflector sort of work against the hood scoop? My eleven year-old daughter sat right in front of this grill on her small bicycle, and laughed: Dad, is this for real?

4 comments:

I judge humans by the vehicle they drive. I know that it's shallow but since I seldom see the driver outside the box I don't have any other way. People in aggressive looking vehicles scare me especially when the driver appears to have a half size head. People that acquire intimidating vehicles, whether it be a conscious or unconscious, have issues I don't want to help them work out from a bicycle.Most that I see close enough to see inside the vehicle have a cigarette in one hand and a cellphone in the other. You can imagine how judgemental I get.

It looks mean, or menacing. It seems like an expensive way to achieve your threat-display. And somewhat futile, since there's always someone out there who's meaner, and, it's unlikely to be an accurate representation of any actual meanness or menace, except possibly for the agree to project mean amounts of light.

Somehow, I find it discouraging to be unable to determine the make and model of the truck in your photo, even after visiting the websites of the usual suspects. From a "car guy." Jaguars were never so anonymous...

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Let's Just Ride

I commute by bicycle in Phoenix, Arizona, a metropolis suited to riding bicycles of all types, with weather, mountains, roads, canals, and paths to keep me forever spinning. My favorite bike tools are an open mind, creative engagement, curiosity, compassion, common ground, and the search for knowledge. With coffee.